Assassinate
noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Assassination, murder. obsolete
"Mor. Why? if I had made an assassinate upon your Father; vitiated your Mother: ravished your Sisters― Tru. I would kill you, Sir, I would kill you, if you had. Mor. Why? you do more in this, Sir: it were a vengeance centuple, for all facinorous Acts, that could be nam'd, to do that you do."
- 2 An assassin. obsolete
"Yet again, many of them deſperat hairebraines, raſh, careleſſe, fit to be Aſſaſinates, as being voide of all Feare and Sorrow […]"
- 1 To murder someone, especially an important person, by a sudden or obscure attack, especially for ideological or political reasons.
"The Assassines, a nation depending of Phœnicia, are esteemed among the Mahometists[…]. And thus was our Earle Raymond of Tripoli murthered or assassinated (this word is borrowed from their name) in the middest of his Citie, during the time of our warres in the holy land[…]."
- 2 destroy or damage seriously, as of someone's reputation wordnet
- 3 To harm, ruin, or defame severely or destroy by treachery, slander, libel, or obscure attack. figuratively
"He assassinated his rival's character."
- 4 murder; especially of socially prominent persons wordnet
Example
More examples"He was ignorant of the plot to assassinate him."
Etymology
From assassin + -ate, after Middle French assassiner.
From assassin + -ate (noun-forming suffix).
Related phrases
More for "assassinate"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.